Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentaries [Paperback]

Simon Karlinsky (Editor), Michael Henry Heim (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

Product Details

• Paperback: 494 pages
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press (January 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810114607
• ISBN-13: 978-0810114609
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Source of Information on Chekhov's Life and Art, April 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentaries (Paperback)

There are many biographies of Chekhov, including the new one by Rayfield, but this edition of the letters is the best source of the writer's life and thought. Long out of print, it was wise of Northwestern University Press to re-issue this book. The other editions of the letters, by Hellman and another by Yarmolinsky, cannot compare.
This volume is valuable for its superb, lengthy introduction, which is a capsule biography. In addition, each of the fifteen sections are introduced by an engaging biographical headnote.
The letters themselves are the record of an extraordinary person, a man who instructed other writers to succeed in their work by feeling "compassion down to their fingertips."
This book shows the emotions and thoughts of the writer who lived that simple but wise piece of advice.
Among the more amusing letters is the one to his wastrel brother, in March 1886, in which he wittily enumerates the qualities of well-bred people. Among them: "They don't guzzle vodka on any old occasion, nor do they go around sniffing cupboards....They shun all ostentation: empty barrels make the most noise."
This volume is full of such humorous but sage advice, and reveals the man behind the extraordinary short stories and plays better than any biography.
You will remember some of the letters in this book throughout your lifetime.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!!, July 12, 2004

By 

Susan E. Neill (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentaries (Paperback)

This is a fascinating book, for fans of both great literature and great biography. There have been many collections of Chekhov's letters, but this one points out the errors in those previous ones (such as the one edited by Lillian Hellman) and corrects them. It focuses primarily on the letters in which Chekhov talked about his literature and the productions of his plays, and on his relationships with other artists, such as Tolstoy, Gorky, Stanislavsky and many others less well known outside of Russia. It also corrects many misperceptions about Chekhov created the various memoirs (such as Stanislavsky's) and biographies based on the erroneous information in those memoirs.

The Chekhov that the reader gets to know through this book is a vividly real human being.

6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Karlinsky si! Chekhov si!, February 16, 2003

By 

Roberto Olivera (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentaries (Paperback)

A fabulous book!! No one could ask for a better read, late at night, with the blankets tucked around one, and a hot buttered rum at one's side!!

Chekhov was a man!!